Hi Everyone! I am new here and am looking for some help and/or support. I have twin 7 year old girls that are currently half way through second grade. We did Kindergarten using the A Beka K5 books, they we did first grade with the DVD's. I am not all that excited to do the actual teaching, it really isn't my kind of thing...
Well anyway, for first grade I pretty much eliminated a portion of the seatwork they are required each day. They had 4 or 5 work sheets and then this thing called "seatwork writing tablet" which took hours to do...it was just copying and answering things, this is the portion I eliminated. We STRUGGLED so much, I just couldn't do it any longer.
So, we went on and are now in Second grade, still using the DVD's. One of my girls does great with the work, keeps up, aces the tests, but the other struggles. Both of them dislike the amount of seatwork they have to do each day. We are adding in the "seatwork writing tablet" this year, but I let them choose 4 of the 7 or 8 activities to do.
So, to make this long story even longer...I feel like we do school for a very long time each day. We start by 8:30 and are not done until 1:00 or 1:30. I have read that often homeschoolers do 2 hours a day with Second graders.
I like the level that A Beka teaches at, I surely want them to be challenged, but I feel like we are on the brink of collapse often. I feel like we fight about school a lot and we all dread doing it.
So, all you seasoned homeschoolers, what should we do? I am at my whits end!
Here is a typical day: Bible 30 minutes, Phonics 30 minutes, Reading 15 mins each, Arithmetic 30 minutes, Spelling 10-15 minutes, Arithmetic Combinations 10 minutes, Activity time 20-30 minutes, then they do all of the seatwork, which can take 1-2 hours, and a brief lunch break.
I should also mention that I have a 3 year old that started some schooling, but it isn't a huge priority. I do feel torn in 2 directions though, I have to be trying to keep her occupied and quiet while they are doing school, but I still need to be in with them, so I can assure they are paying attention.
Ughhhh.....

I was homeschooled. My mom did not have set times for each subject, which made it more relaxed. If we got done early, we could go on to the next subject. We also incorporated a lot of hands-on activities and field trips into our education. My favorite subjects were the ones that we did not have to sit down and do every day. We could explore those subjects more in an unschooling way.

Here is some advice from my mom:
"My first bit of advice is RELAX! My two kids never went to school and both recently passed the GED without any problems. We did not have a very structured school day. I would say that we were somewhere between homeschoolers and unschoolers. "School" was loosely done in the morning when we had Bible lessons and worked on some unit studies, writing, and math. We encouraged a love for learning and the kids chose many of the topics they wished to explore. One way you can start this is by putting your workbooks away and going on a field trip. Go to the zoo, the nature center, the farm, or whatever interests you. Then go to the library and find some fun stories to go with the topic. Come home and read the books, act out the stories, write letters to the characters in the books. Get out some money and play store. Put a price on toys and learn how to make change. Count by twos with pennies, by fives with nickels, by tens with dimes, etc. Cut food in half, in quarters. Look at pentagons, hexagons, etc. Count the sides. Draw them. Make them into funny pictures with faces or whatever the girls want. Call them Pentagon Patty or Hexagon Helen. Be creative, laugh together, have fun! Don't worry that you spent money on a curriculum. If it isn't going to instill a love for learning then it isn't worth the money you spent on it. Put it aside and have fun! If parts of the curriculum are enjoyable, then use those parts and skip the rest."